Image processing apparatus, image processing method and storage medium

ABSTRACT

A cell type page which displays a fixed number of images at fixed positions with fixed size on a screen and a free type page which displays equal to or more than one image at arbitrary positions with arbitrary size on the screen are provided. In response to an image insertion order in the cell type page, images belong to the cell type pages behind that cell type page are sent astern without influencing positions of images belong to the free type pages behind that cell type image and blank pages are added if there is no blank cells. In response to an image deletion order from the cell type page, images behind an image to be deleted belong to the cell type pages behind that cell type page are closed ahead without influencing positions of images belong to the free type page behind that cell type page and the blank pages are deleted if the blank pages are appeared.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an imageprocessing method and a storage medium.

2. Related Background Art

A program called an “electronic album” has been known, which runs on aninformation processing apparatus such as a personal computer or thelike. Such sort of program allows for easy insertion, deletion andmoving of images in the electronic album, by means of several pocketcells used to paste the images to each page.

In an image pocket cell type page of the electronic album, the size orthe position of the pocket cell can be set by selecting from previouslyprepared patterns, or arbitrarily modified. Its order and position canbe managed, in case of an image insertion, by moving one positionbackward the image which was present at the insertion position and thefollowing images, in case of an image deletion, by erasing the imagewhich was present at the deletion position and moving one positionforward the following images.

Also, document creating/editing programs similarly running on thepersonal computer exist, which allow to paste an image at almost anyarbitrary position, furthermore, after pasting, the position and thesize of the image can be freely modified. This is so to speak a freeimage position and size type page and its appearance as a document canbe improved by adjusting the position relative to the texts or thefigures on the same page.

The image pocket cell type page is easily operated and as it can beregarded as a paper album from the background art which has simply beensubstituted by an electronic form, is easily understood. On the otherhand, the influence of an insertion or a deletion of the image into acertain page extends to the image position in the following pages. Forexample, if an image is deleted from a page preceding a page completedas a photograph made of three grouped images, one of the grouped imageswould move to the preceding page and when displayed on a TV or printedon a paper, its consistency as a catalog or grouped photograph is lost.

On another front, the free image position and size type page has a highlevel of freedom for its appearance as an album page, but leaves a blankspace when the image is deleted. In the case the image is inserted,operations such as moving other images are necessary therefore lacksease of use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide an image managingapparatus and a method, an image processing method and a storage mediumwhich can solve the above-mentioned problem and combine the advantagesof both.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention to reach theabove-mentioned object is characterized in that an image processingmethod for laying out images on each of plural pages comprises a firstmode of changing image positions of other pages in accordance with achange in a position of an image in a certain page among theabove-mentioned plural pages, and a second mode of not changing theimage positions of other pages even if the position of the image in acertain page among the above-mentioned plural pages is changed.

The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus havingoriginal functions, an image processing method and a storage mediumthereof.

Other functions and features of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following detailed explanation and the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of the structure of anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an overview of control keys of a remote console 12;

FIG. 3 is a view showing an example of displaying an album list;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a screen when images contained in onealbum are displayed on a page;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a screen resulting from the deletion of animage from an image pocket cell type page shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of a screen resulting from the insertion ofthe image into the image pocket cell type page shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the image pocket cell type page and a freeimage position and size type page;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of a result of the deletion of an image Pic.2 from a first page (Page 1) shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a schematic view of a result of the execution of an imageinsertion order while a cursor is adjusted to an image Pic. 3 in thestatus shown in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a result of the execution of a furtherimage insertion order to the position of an image Pic. N1 from thestatus shown in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a schematic view of a result when an image Pic. 7 in a thirdpage (Page 3) shown in FIG. 10 is moved to a second page (Page 2);

FIGS. 12A and 12B are figures showing the data structures of an albumpage and an image;

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of processing when a certain image is deletedfrom the album page;

FIG. 14 is a flow chart of processing when a certain image is insertedinto the album page; and

FIG. 15 is a flow chart showing the processing and operation when theattribute of a page is modified while the album page is displayed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Subsequently, the preferred embodiment of the present invention will bedescribed referring to the attached drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an overall structure block diagram of a first embodimentfor the present invention. Numeral 10 is a control unit controlling theensemble, to which input units consisting of a remote console 12 and amicrophone (MIC) 14, output units consisting of an image display 16 suchas a CRT, a liquid crystal display or the likes, a speaker 18, an inkjetor laser printer 20 and a memory group 22 (including memories 22-1 to22-n) (G1 to Gn) which store image data, are connected.

The memory group memorizes album page data and image attribute of eachimage corresponding to images described hereafter (FIGS. 12A and 12B).

It should be noted that the above-mentioned image data is a color imageand images displayed on the image display 16 are images which arethinned out, while the printer 20 prints images which are not thinnedout.

Consequently, according to a rapid execution of modifications on theimage display 16 described hereafter, an image print of high resolutionimage can be performed.

FIG. 2 shows keys on the remote console 12. Numeral 30 is a power key,numeral 32 is a menu key, numeral 34 is a help key, numeral 36 is a pagemoving key, numeral 38 is an up/down and left/right moving key, numeral40 is a define/execute key and numeral 42 is an interrupt/cancel key.However, instructions to the control unit 10 can be inputted by a userby suitably selecting function buttons on the image display 16 or thepage moving key 36, the up/down and left/right moving key 38 and thedefine/execute key 40. Such an operating method itself is well known.

The present apparatus starts an operation when the power key 30 of thecontrol unit 10 or the remote console 12 is pressed, or when a storagemedium is loaded into the memory group 22. After it starts, under acontrol of the control unit 10, a summary of an electronic albummemorized in the memory group 22 is displayed on a screen of the imagedisplay 16 as shown in FIG. 3. Any one among several albums can beselected by the up/down and left/right moving key 38 and thedefine/execute key 40.

When one album is selected, a first page of the selected album isdisplayed as shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 4 exemplifies a pattern #3 (formwhich displays a set of four images, two by two, in up/down andleft/right positions) of an image pocket cell type page. In FIG. 4, fourimages Pic. 1 to Pic. 4 are displayed with the same size on one page.Several images are recorded in each album and each image is numberedsequentially for each album. As in the album summary shown in FIG. 3, ina page display shown in FIG. 4, a selection status indicating cursor isalways associated with at least one image. The up/down and left/rightmoving key 38 allows to move the selection status indicating cursor onanother image on the screen.

The insertion and deletion of images in the image pocket cell type pagewill be described briefly. In addition, the following operation can berealized by an operator issuing instructions using the remote console12.

In FIG. 4, four images Pic. 1 to Pic. 4 are displayed on one page andthe selection status indicating cursor is associated with the image Pic.2. From this status, if an image deletion is performed, the image Pic. 2is deleted and the screen becomes as shown in FIG. 5. In other words, anext image Pic. 3 moves to a position where the image Pic. 2 was, animage Pic. 5 moves to a position where the image Pic. 4 was, such thatsequential images are successively closed forward (ahead). The order ofthe images contained in the current or subsequent pages does not change,the images following the deleted images are closed ahead and displayed.

From a status as shown in FIG. 4, if an image insertion instruction ofan image Pic. N is performed, the image Pic. N is inserted at theposition where the image Pic. 2 was, the image Pic. 2 is moved to theposition of the image Pic. 3 and images subsequent to the image Pic. 3move successively backward (astern), as shown in FIG. 6.

Thus, in the image pocket cell type page, the images are placed in eachpage pocket cell following the order recorded in the album, in case thedeletion or the insertion of the image is performed, the images afterthe position where the insertion or the deletion occurred aresequentially closed ahead or sent astern. Thus, the image pocket celltype page allows an easy execution of deletion and insertion of theimages, and the order of the images can easily be changed. The imagesare always supplied continuously without leaving a blank space in thealbum page.

The image pocket cell type page has the above-mentioned advantages, buton the other hand, there are some disadvantages. That is, the positionof the image is changed synchronizing with the deletion or the insertionof the image.

For example, considering a photograph composed of a single group ofseveral images and that all of the grouped photograph is placed to becontained in some page of the album. From this situation, if one imagepositioned before the page containing the grouped photograph is deleted,in the case of the image pocket cell type page, since the imagespositioned after the deleted image are successively closed ahead, onlyone of the grouped photographs moves forward. As a result, the groupedphotograph collapses.

In order not to collapse the grouped photograph, a free image positionand size type page (simply referred to “FREE PAGE” in the drawings) canbe used. The influence of the deletion and the insertion for the freeimage position and size type page and the previous image pocket celltype page will be explained.

FIG. 7 shows a display state on the image display 16 of a first page anda second page of some album. The first page is the image pocket celltype page, but the second page is the free image position and size typepage. The “SF” displayed at the bottom right shows that the page is thefree image position and size type page.

Consider that the deletion instruction of the image Pic. 2 from thefirst page shown in FIG. 7 is executed. If the second page is the imagepocket cell type page, as explained using FIG. 5, the following imagesare successively being sent to the position where the deleted image wasplaced, but in FIG. 7, since the second page is the free image positionand size type page, images Pic. 5, Pic 6, Pic 7 and Pic. 8 placed on thesecond page remain on the second page with the same position and size,while the image Pic. 2 is deleted from the first page, and the followingimages Pic. 3 and Pic. 4 in the first page are closed ahead. The finalresult is shown in FIG. 8. As the closing ahead occurs in the firstpage, the next image Pic. 4 is placed in the cell where the image Pic. 3was in FIG. 7, but the cell where the image Pic. 4 was becomes a blankcell. This is because the next image Pic. 5 belongs to the free imageposition and size type page and thus does not move to the precedingpage. As a result, even if the image pocket cell type pages were presentafter a third page, the moving of the images is blocked at the secondpage, and there is no influence of the execution of the image deletionat the first page, to the pages after the second page.

From the display status shown in FIG. 8, in the case the cursor isadjusted to the image Pic. 3 and an image insertion order is executed, anew image Pic. N1 is placed in the cell where the image Pic. 3 was. Theimages following the image Pic. 3 are sent successively astern, but asthere is one blank cell in the first page, the image Pic. 4 is moved tothe blank cell as shown in FIG. 9.

From the display status shown in FIG. 9, in the case in which anotherinsertion order is executed at the position of the image Pic. N1, a newimage Pic. N2 is placed in the cell where the image Pic. N1 ispositioned, the images Pic. N1, Pic. 3 and Pic. 4 from the first pageare sent astern one by one. As the first page has only four cells, theimage Pic. 4 cannot fit into the first page and is sent to the secondpage. However, since the second page is the free image position and sizetype page, the member-position-size of images which belong to the secondpage cannot be influenced by any order from other pages. Therefore, inorder to place the image Pic. 4 overflown from the first page, the pagesafter the second page are sent astern as a whole page without changingthe position-order-size of the images. That is, newly insert a blanksecond page after the first page, and the already existing second page,the third page and the following pages are renumbered to become thethird page, the fourth page, and the following pages. Then, the imagePic. 4 is placed in the first cell of the blank second page. The resultis shown in FIG. 10.

The moving of images from the free image position and size type page tothe image pocket cell type page will be explained. From the displaystatus shown in FIG. 10, in the case an image Pic. 7 is to be moved fromthe third page to the second page, the cursor is first adjusted to theimage Pic. 7 and an image moving order is executed. Then, as a guidancedisplaying is performed to assign a moving destination, the second pageis assigned. Then, the image Pic. 7 is moved from the third page to thesecond page and placed as shown in FIG. 11. Since the third page is thefree image position and size type page, other images are not influencedby the removal of the image Pic. 7 from the page. Since the blank cellis present in the second page which is the moving destination of theimage Pic. 7, the image Pic. 7 is placed to its blank second cell.

As in the display status shown in FIG. 10, the image Pic. 7 has ahorizontally long rectangle shape in the third page, but as the secondpage is the image pocket cell type page, the number of cells, the sizeand the shape are predefined. Therefore, the image Pic. 7, at the pointit is placed on the second page, takes the same size and shape as thoseof the image Pic. 4 and the likes, instead of the horizontally longrectangle shape as in the third page.

The album page data is maintained as an album structure (page displaycontrol information) which consists in five elements as shown in FIG.12A. One page is represented by the one album structure and the albumstructures corresponding to the page number are maintained as a sequencein a whole album. Element 50 is a page number and indicates to whichpage number the data belongs. Element 52 indicates how many images canbe placed on the page. Element 54 indicates how many images are actuallyplaced on the page. In other words, the difference between the element52 and the element 54 indicates the number of blank cells on the page.The latest number of the image placed on the page, that is the imagenumber is stored in element 56. The image numbers are a series ofsuccessive numbers within the album. On the page, images are to beplaced starting with a number indicated by the element 56 and for acontinuous number indicated by the element 54. Element 58 indicates anattribute of the page. The page attribute is either the image pocketcell type or the free image position and size type. The page attributedetermines the behavior of the image when the deletion or the insertionis executed.

The attribute of each image is maintained by an image structure (imagedisplay control information) shown in FIG. 12B. The images which belongto the album have one image structure per one image and a whole imagepart is maintained as a sequence. Element 60 indicates an image number.The image numbers are series of successive numbers and obviously uniqueto each image within the album. Element 62 indicates the x coordinate ofan upper left point of the image in the free image position and sizetype page. Element 64 indicates the y coordinate of the upper left pointof the image in the free image position and size type page. Element 66indicates a dimension of the image in the x direction and element 68indicates a dimension of the image in the y direction respectively.However, the elements 60 to 68 bear these meanings only in the case whenthe attribute of the page to which the image belongs indicates the freeimage position and size type. This is because in the case of the imagepocket cell type page, the position and the size of the images arepredefined as the position and the size of the cells.

A flow of process when some image is deleted from the album page will beexplained. In addition, the following process is executed by the controlunit 10 according to the program stored in a RAM or a ROM (not shown) inthe control unit 10. FIG. 13 is a flow chart of it. According to thepage attribute 58, it is judged which of the image pocket cell type pageor the free image position and size type page the deleted page wasplaced on (S1). If it is the free image position and size type page, theassigned image is only to be deleted from the page, and there is noinfluence on other pages (S2).

If it is the image pocket cell type page determined in S1, look upwhether there is the free image position and size type page behind thepage containing the image (S3). If there is no free image position andsize type page (S3), close ahead all the images following the deletedimage (S4). If there is the free image position and size type page instep S3, close ahead the images up to the page immediately before thedetected free image position and size type page (S5). There is noinfluence of the image deletion on the pages behind the detected freeimage position and size type page.

In step S6, it is checked whether or not a blank page containing not asingle image has been created as the result of either S4 or S5. This isbecause if, from a status where the image pocket cell type page withonly a single image is immediately before the free image position andsize type page, and an image preceding it is deleted, a blank page willbe created. If the blank page is created, the blank page is deleted instep (S7).

In step S8, it is checked whether there is page continuity. This isbecause if the blank page is the last page, even if the page is deleted,the continuity will be conserved, but if the blank page immediatelybefore the free image position and size type page is deleted, the pagenumber will be skipped by one.

When the discontinuity of the pages is detected in step S8, in order tobecome continuous, the pages are closed ahead in step S9, which ends animage deletion process.

In the following, the process flow when some image is inserted to thealbum page will be explained. In addition, the following process is alsoexecuted by the control unit 10 according to the program stored in a RAMor ROM (not shown) in the control unit 10. FIG. 14 is a flow chart ofit. According to the page attribute 58, it is judged in step S11 whichof the image pocket cell type page or the free image position and sizetype page the inserted page was placed on. If it is the free imageposition and size type page determined in step S11, the process isterminated by newly placing an image on the page (S12). There is noinfluence on other pages.

If, in step S11, it is determined that the page where the imageinsertion was performed is the image pocket cell type S11, in step S13,it is looked up whether there is the free image position and size typepage behind the page containing the image. If, in step S13, it isdetermined that there is no free image position and size type pagebehind, the images placed on cells following the cell where theinsertion was performed are successively sent astern in step S15. If, instep S13, it is determined that there is the free image position andsize type page behind, the images from the position where the insertionoccurred, up to the page immediately before the detected free imageposition and size type page, are successively sent astern in step S14.

When successively sending astern the images, the last image among thesent images is to be placed on a new cell. Thus, step S16 judges whetherthere is a blank cell. If there is no blank cell, in the case in whichthe free image position and size type page has been detected in the stepS13, a blank page is inserted immediately before the page. If the freeimage position and size type page has not been detected in step S13, theblank page is inserted (added) at the end of the album in step S17. Ifthe insertion of the blank page (S17) is not an addition to the end ofthe album, the number of the blank page and the number of the alreadyexisting page will overlap. Therefore, this is checked in step S18. Ifthe page numbers overlap, the page numbers of the pages subsequent tothe overlapped already existing page are rearranged in step S19. Thisends the image insertion process.

The process and the operation for changing the attribute of a page whiledisplaying the album page will be explained. FIG. 15 is a flow chart ofit. In addition, in the case the image pocket cell type page isconverted to the free image position and size type page, since only theattribute of the assigned page is changed and only the indicator “SF”appears at the bottom right on the display as shown in the second pageof FIG. 7, a detailed explanation will be omitted.

In the case the free image position and size type page is converted tothe image pocket cell type page, if the immediately before page is theimage pocket cell type page, moreover, if there are blank cells in theimage pocket cell type page, the images flow from the page which isconverted to the image pocket cell type page from the free imageposition and size type page so as to fill the blank cells. As a resultof the images flowing to fill the blank cells, by comparing the numberof the predetermined number of cells and the number of remaining imagesof the page for which the attribute has been changed, if there are moreimages, the exceeding images also flow astern. If there are more cells,the images flow from the behind pages. In other words, when the freeimage position and size type page is converted to the image pocket celltype page, the moving of images occurs filling upstream blank cells, inorder to match the number of images and the number of cells in the pagewhich has newly become of image pocket cell type. This moving isequivalent to the moving which is a combination of several deletions ofimages and several insertions of images.

The explanation will be given concretely using FIG. 15. In step S21, itis judged whether the page immediately before the page which attributehas been changed to the image pocket cell type page is the image pocketcell type, moreover, whether it has the blank cells. If there are theblank cells, a process identical to when the images have been deletedfor the number of the blank cells in the immediately before page isexecuted in step S22. That is, the images flow from theattribute-changed page to the immediately before page. In step S23, itis judged whether the blank cells are created in the page by the flowingof the images from the attribute-changed page. If the blank cells arejudged to be created in step S23, a process identical to when the imagedeletion process is performed on the page (process shown in FIG. 13,step S3 onwards) is executed in step S24. If there are no blanks on thepage immediately before the attribute-changed page (S21), and if thereare no blank cells on the attribute-changed page (S23), it is judgedwhether the number of the images are greater than the number of thecells on the attribute-changed page in step S25. In the case in whichthere are more images than the cells, execute a process identical towhen the image insertion process is performed on the page (process shownin FIG. 14, step S13 onwards) is executed in step S26.

Thus, the process in the case the attribute of the page is changed fromthe free image position and size type to the image pocket cell typewhile displaying the album page ends.

As explained above, by adding either of the free image position and sizetype attribute or the image pocket cell type attribute to the album pageand by the proper use according to the aim, a user designed composedalbum can easily be realized.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the structure is such that, if theimages are deleted/inserted from/in the image pocket cell type pagebefore the free image position and size type page, as shown in FIGS. 8and 10, the blank cells appear in the page immediately before the freeimage position and size type page. However, it is possible to move theimages which belong to the image pocket cell type page immediatelybehind the free image position and size type page, by the same number asthe blank cells, to a blank image pocket cell type page beyond the freeimage position and size type page, and fill the blank cells. That is,the images which belong to the image pocket cell type behind can beclosed ahead. According to the preference of a user, a choice of thebehavior can be predetermined, or when the blank cells appear, aninquiring guidance is to be displayed on the image display 16 and by theuser assignment using the remote control unit 12, the blank cells can befilled automatically.

It is evident that, although in the present embodiment, the electronicalbum apparatus is explained, it is not always limited to the electronicalbum apparatus, and can be adapted, for example, to an electronic albumperforming identically to the above-mentioned embodiment as anapplication program running on a personal computer.

The present invention can be adapted to a system composed of severaldevices, or adapted to an apparatus composed of one device.

Moreover, the embodiment may be achieved in the cases where the programcode of the software for realizing functions in the above-mentionedembodiment is supplied to either an apparatus or a computer in a systemconnected to various devices which are to be operated so as to realizethe functions in the above-mentioned embodiment and the apparatus or thecomputer (or CPU or MPU) of the system operates the above-mentionedvarious devices in accordance with the stored program.

In this case, a program code itself of the above-mentioned software isto realize the functions of the above-mentioned embodiment and theprogram code itself and means for providing the program code to thecomputer, for example, a storage medium which stored the program codeare to constitute the current embodiment. As the storage media to storethe program code, for example, floppy disks, hard disks, optical disks,magneto-optical disks, CD-ROM's, magnetic tapes, non-volatile memorycards, ROM and the like can be used.

Also, it is evident that the program code is included in the embodimentof the present invention in the cases where not only the functions inthe above-mentioned embodiment can be realized by executing the providedprogram code with the computer, but also the functions in theabove-mentioned embodiment can be realized by the cooperative operatingof the program code with an OS (operating system) running on thecomputer or other application software.

Further, it is evident that a case of realizing the functions of theabove-mentioned embodiment is included in the embodiment of the presentinvention by the process that the supplied program code is stored in amemory equipping an extension board of the computer or equipping afunction extension unit connected to the computer, thereafter, the CPUor the like equipping the extension board or the function extension unitperforms a part of, or all of an actual process based on instructionsfrom the program code.

As it can be easily seen from the above description, in the case a groupof images recorded on a storage medium such as the hard disk or the likeis to be displayed on a display apparatus such as a TV or the like witha page unit, while conserving the ease of editing work such as moving,adding and deleting each image, the images can be flexibly placed on thepage.

1. An image processing method for managing and controlling, on a perpage basis, plural images stored in a storage means, said methodcomprising: a page attribute judgment step, of judging whether a page iseither an image cell type page in which a number and size of includedimages on the page are defined or a free image positioned and sized pagein which the number and the size of the included images on the page maybe flexibly changed; a page display step, of displaying plural imagesstored in the storage means by distributing the images to each page inaccordance with a judgment result obtained in said page attributejudgment step; an insertion and rearrangement step, of, in response toan image insertion command in an image cell type page, moving imagesbelonging to the image cell type page back behind an inserted imagewithout influencing positions of images belonging to free imagepositioned and sized pages located behind the image cell type page withthe inserted image and adding additional pages if no blank cells exist;and a deletion and rearrangement step, of, in response to an imagedeletion command in an image cell type page, moving images belonging tothe image cell type page forward, which were located behind a deletedimage, without influencing the positions of the images belonging to thefree image positioned and sized pages located behind the image cell typepage with the deleted image and deleting blank pages if blank pagesappear.
 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein, in said insertion andrearrangement step, in response to the image insertion command in theimage cell type page, images belonging to successive image cell typepages located behind the image cell type page with the inserted imageare moved back, and additional pages are added if no blank cells exist,and in said deletion and rearrangement step, in response to the imagedeletion command in the image cell type page, images belonging tosuccessive image cell type pages located behind the deleted image aremoved forward, and blank pages are deleted if blank pages appear.
 3. Amethod according to claim 1, further comprising an attribute changingand rearrangement step, of rearranging the images, which belong to aseries of image cell type pages that include pages of which displayattributes are changed, on each page in the series of the image celltype pages, in response to a change in a display attribute from a freeimage positioned and sized page to an image cell type page.
 4. A methodaccording to claim 3, wherein said attribute changing and rearrangementstep further includes rearranging the images belonging to all the imagecell type pages on each image cell type page, in response to the changein the display attribute from the free image positioned and sized pageto the image cell type page.
 5. A method according to claim 1, whereinan aspect ratio of the color image may be changed in free imagepositioned and sized pages.
 6. A method according to claim 1, whereineach page has page display control information which includes data fordefining a page number, a maximum number of images, a number of includedimages and the included images, and each information of the displayattribute.
 7. A method according to claim 1, wherein each image hasimage display control information which includes an image number managedby a display order management means, coordinate data indicating adisplay position in a case of free image positioned and sized pages, anddisplay size data.